https://concrete.ghost.io/speak-softly-and-carry-a-long-roadmap/
Agencies need people who are in it for the long haul, who will take the time to learn the ins and outs of the architecture they're building on and the policy missions they're supporting. But every time an agency IT team attempts to hire great people, they end up reliving the same story: the applicants weren't good, or the application window wasn't open long enough, or the good candidates didn't make it past the first cut because the non-technical reviewer didn't know how to read a developer's résumé. So they cancel the posting and try it again.
The US Government needs a single recruiting team for digital: a single marketing budget, recruiters who know how to talk to the community, a single point of entry, and a delegated examining unit staffed with digital-savvy application evaluators. USDS's SME-QA project recognizes one aspect of the challenge, but it doesn't seem scalable. I'd rather have OPM post one cloud engineer position with hundreds of vacancies and share the cert USG-wide. I know USDS did a project with OPM in the past year or two, and that OPM recently created an office with a digital recruiting mission in mind. I hope this new outfit focuses on recruiting and hiring digital talent at scale, for the purpose of long-term placement within agencies. This is the long pole in the government IT tent, and it is a job that very few agency HR shops are succeeding at on their own. I'm optimistic about the U.S. Digital Corps, the newest USG-wide digital shop. It seems to have a model that resembles what I'm describing here.